Why Does the World Exist? Named a New York Times Top Ten Book of 2012

12/5/2012

Jim Holt's epic journey to the center of the universe's most perplexing question, Why Does the World Exist? (Liveright Publishing/W. W. Norton), has been named by the editors of The New York Times Book Review as one of the 10 Best Books of 2012. Subtitled "An Existential Detective Story," the book offers Holt's keenly perceptive interviews with those who might shed light on why there is something rather than nothing and address such bedeviling matters as God and theories from Big Bang to String. In The New York Times Book Review's December 9 issue, the editors praise Holt for taking readers "on a witty and erudite journey from London to Paris to Austin, Tex., as he listens to a varied cast of philosophers, scientists and even novelists [who] offer solutions that are sometimes closely reasoned, sometimes almost mystical, often very strange, always entertaining and thought-provoking."